New Hauler Picking Up Longwood Trash

May 6, 1993|By Mary Brooks of The Sentinel Staff

LONGWOOD — Beginning today, a new company will get its hands on residents' garbage.

Waste Management of Orlando begins collecting solid waste, recyclable items and yard waste under a three-year contract. In the city's first competitive bid for garbage collection since 1987, city commissioners selected the company last month from six candidates.

The monthly cost to residents will be $10.95 - $3.73 less than the rate charged by Industrial Waste Service, which had handled service to the city since 1987.

City customers can expect to save about $195,825 a year, city purchasing director Rhonda Ledford said.

The competitive bid - opened on March 24 - came after more than a year of complaints about Industrial Waste and pressure from residents to look at other garbage collectors.

A city survey in March showed 33 percent of customers were dissatisfied with service, and 66 percent wanted garbage service to be put up for competitive bids. Only 903 of the 4,400 surveys were returned. The commission had been extending Industrial Waste's contract at the end of each term.

Waste Management of Orlando already serves more than two dozen municipalities in Orange, Seminole, Volusia, Osceola and Flagler counties, including Orlando, Altamonte Springs and Sanford. Statewide, Waste Management has contracts with more than 100 cities and counties.

The parent company, Waste Management Inc., was formed in 1968, employs about 63,000 people worldwide and had 1991 annual revenues of $7.5 billion.